Towbar Advice

[DukeNukem]

I am excitedly awaiting delivery of my superb elegance next week.

 

I am planning to have a towbar fitted straight away. After following some advice on hear I did not order the "tow bar preparation" with the car.

 

I have received several quotes after specifying a detachable swan neck towbar, 13 pin electrics with dedicated wiring kit and the fitter to include recoding the car so that it knows it is towing and activates/deactivates various features.

 

Most quotes have come in around £700 but I have had one for £469. This supposedly still includes the dedicated wiring kit and the recode.

 

I have also had one fitter quote £415 but using a standard bypass relay rather than a dedicated kit. They told me they did a superb recently this way and it worked very well. They have also asked what functionality I hoped to get with the dedicated wiring that a standard bypass relay wouldnt allow.

 

Just looking for any advice really. Obviously the quote for £469 looks great. Is there any questions I should be asking?

 

Located in Cambridgeshire.

 

Thanks

[DukeNukem]

Just wanted to add - the cheap £469 company were one of the ones listed on the Witter website as approved fitters.

[sherlocks VRS]

Take my advise as a superb owner who tows a large caravan and who also works at a skoda main dealer go for the devoted skoda wiring kit, this kit also charges your leisure battery powers the fridge and also gives you power for the new caravans that have atc systems fitted, it also switches your rear parking sensors off etc. I fitted mine last saturday to my new superb 2.0 170 cr 4x4 elegance estate and it took aprox 3.5 hours to fit and to recode the relevant control units. they are so much better in my opinion than the cheaper and sometimes troublesome aftermarket units.

[Joakim]

Will you be able to activate the trailer stabilization function in the ESP system without the dedicated kit? That function alone should be worth a bit extra, in my opinion.

You will also get automatic deactivation of rear PDC and warnings for faulty bulbs on the trailer in the car instrument with the dedicated kit.

[DukeNukem]

Thanks for your advice.

 

I have ruled out the standard bypass relay quote.

 

For my cheapest quote using the "dedicated wiring kit" (£469) I have been told the following:

 

"We use Westfalia electrics, which are OE spec for VW/Skoda vehicles, they are top quality and will do all you ask."

 

Sherlocks - does this sound like the same part that would normally be fitted to a skoda superb?

[sherlocks VRS]

Thanks for your advice.

 

I have ruled out the standard bypass relay quote.

 

For my cheapest quote using the "dedicated wiring kit" (£469) I have been told the following:

 

"We use Westfalia electrics, which are OE spec for VW/Skoda vehicles, they are top quality and will do all you ask."

 

Sherlocks - does this sound like the same part that would normally be fitted to a skoda superb?

Yeah my kit was westfalia and the tow bar was a westfalia as well, you wont go wrong with them 

[psycholist]

The blown bulb warning worked with the relay based aftermarket towing electrics in my Octavia (They plugged in between the rear light cluster and the car's loom and took power from a fuse added to the fusebox), but that didn't have ESP, so there wasn't a need to give the car more information that it was towing, so I was happy to spend a day with a friend of mine fitting this on my driveway and saved about €200 compared to getting it professionally fitted.

 

I've heard that if the trailer is unplugged from the car while the car is locked with the OEM electrics it sets the car alarm off, which is a nice security feature I think. I got the OEM towbar fitted to my Superb as part of the deal when I bought it earlier this year, but the parking sensors don't turn off, so the ESP also most likely doesn't acknowledge the trailer either. I've to schedule dropping the car in to the garage I bought it from as they reckon they'll need 2 days to rewire the trailer electrics. They've told me it shipped from the factory without the proper wiring setup. A friend of mine who bought a new Leon FR has the same behaviour in his towing setup, so it may be a common enough thing to go wrong with OEM towbars from dealers.

[HoneyMonster65]

Another westfalia detachable towbar user here. Whole kit fitted by dealer approx £550 with haggling. 13 pin electrics, so charges battery fridge powers alko atc system and turns off rear fogs and rear sensors shows a trailer fitted on columbus when hooked up, also disables start stop on DSG model we have and as mentioned is connected to vehicle alarm system. No problems using the kit however have added a D shackle onto attachment for  breakaway cable as it was a right pita to get too

[jonathan.tong]

As HoneyMonster65 above, we're another satisfied dedicated wiring kit plus OEM Westfalia detachable towbar user. The electrics can be swung up out of the way when not in use, so you really can't see anything unless you're under the car. There's also a specific slot to store the towbar in the car jack/tools/spare wheel thing which is nice. We did notice that start/stop seemed to be disabled, but didn't realise it was part of the programming. Nose weight is 80kg as per the user manual.